


My Heart is Gold, and My Hands are Cold.

by Marauderslove



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Deaf Clint Barton, M/M, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony's a workaholic, civil war never happened
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-28
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-06-04 23:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 6,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6680773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marauderslove/pseuds/Marauderslove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony almost dies in his workshop from overexhaustion and a little fire, Steve and JARVIS lock him out for a whole week. Can Tony survive the enforced human interaction, especially with one Captain America?<br/>~Complete~</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Day 1

Tony sighed as he stumbled into the barley lit kitchen. It was extremely early and normally Tony would have already been in his workshop, but the Cap and JARVIS had locked him out last night after a small mishap and now he had nothing to do.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad. He had just been down there for three days and when he had passed out from exhaustion, he hadn't noticed that he had left a burner on that was melting some metal for him.

When it finished off the metal, it started on his workshop as a whole. Which, if Tony hadn't been in there, would have been fine since JARVIS would have just sucked all the oxygen out, but Tony had been in there and if Steve hadn't been on his way down to bring him his shield to touch up, who knows what would have happened?

At least that's what the Cap said whenever Tony whined about how unfair it was and how it was his workshop, "Steve you can't lock me out of my own workshop!"

Except he did.

And really, Tony can't afford to be of his workshop for a week. He needs to work on things for SI and Clint's combustable arrows are going off too early and some not at all and his repulsors need to be rebalanced and, honestly, being Tony Stark is hard.

He's grumbling to himself about super-soldiers and AIs getting sold to community colleges when he hears a soft chuckle behind him. He whirls around, his hand raised to blast the intruder when he realizes he left his repulor in his workshop, damnit Steve, and that it's just Bucky.

The chuckle is now full out laughter and Tony grumbles even louder as he turns around to sit at the table.

"Aren't you usually in your workshop by now?" Bucky asks him as he gets his own cup of joe and sits down across from him.

"I would be but your best friend decided to conspire with my AI, WHO I CREATED, and they locked me out of my shop for a whole week!" Tony pouted to the ex asassassin.

"Wait! Your Steve's best friend! You can get him to let me in!" Tony cried in triumph, obviously thinking that he had just solve the mystery.

Bucky just shook his head and laughed, "Yeah, like I could ever get Stevie to do anything. Why did he lock you out?"

Tony looked down and mumbled something that the soldier couldn't hear.

"What was that?"

"I said, I may have lock myself in the shop and passed out from exhaustion and then starte a small fire and didn't realize it and the only thing that saved me was Steve coming down to the shop." Tony said in a rush, knowing that Bucky wouldn't take the tale much better than Bruce had.

Who had also locked Tony out of his lab for the next week, which really? Did these people forget whose house this was?

Bucky closed his eyes and shook his head, "Honestly, the two of you punks deserve each other." he mumbled to himself before getting up.

He got out another mug and poured more coffee, "Better get this to birdbrain before he combusts." Bucky joked before saluting Tony and making his way to his and Clint's bedroom.

Tony winced as he looked at the blinking, red numbers abover the stove, 5:25.

It was going to be a long week.


	2. Day 2

"Tony? Hey, Tony?" the genius heard Steve yell from his position on the floor. 

He refused to answer Steve since he was the reason that Tony was in this current predicamint and Tony did not talk to traitors. 

"JARVIS? Where's Tony?" he heard the blonde demon ask and his mouth dropped open when his AI actually answered the super-soldier. 

"Sir is currently in the common area, Mr. Rogers." 

"Thanks, JARVIS." 

"How dare you, JARVIS?! Betraying me like that? I expected better of you! I'm going to sell you to a community college- NO! You know what? Community college is too good for you, clown college! I'll sell you to clown college!" 

"Tony, what are you doing?" Steve asked as he came into the room to see the older man lying on the ground yelling at his computer system. 

Tony turned his head to face him, but made no move to get up. 

"What does it look like, Spangles? I am trying to become one with my floor." 

"Why?"

"Because I'm bored! You locked me out of my workshop and now I don't know what to do with my life!" Tony cried out dramatically. 

Steve rolled his eyes at the man's antics. "One, that's a little dramatic. Two, there has to be something that you do outside of your workshop and the avengers." Steve said sitting cross-legged beside the pouting genius. 

Tony just looked at him blankly before Steve got uncomfortable and looked away realizing that, no, Tony didn't do anything outside of those two things. 

After he broke up with Pepper he had thrown himself into projects for SI, some messed up form of making up of for choosing Iron Man over her. 

After Ultron and bringing Bucky to the tower, the Avengers hadn't had time to spend together as a group. Too focused on rebuilding the world and then rebuilding a man. 

It broke Steve's heart to realize that he had been neglecting a team mate and probably his best friend after Bucky. It made it even worse because Steve may or may not have more than platonic feelings for the brilliant man laying in front of him.

Steve's resolve hardened over the fact that they were going to become a team again, starting with him and Tony. 

"Well, I was going to go work out for a while, want to join?" he asked, seeing Tony jump, obviously thinking that Steve had left.

Tony contemplated working out with Steve, he hadn't hit the gym in a while, too busy with projects. And goodness knows that having a personal trainer like Captain Muscles over there would do him some good. 

"Ugh, fine." Tony groaned, dragging the vowels out. 

Steve beamed at him and jumped up before reaching down to help Tony up.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
Working out with Steve? Bad idea. Worst idea Tony has ever had actually, and he's had a lot of bad ideas. 

He didn't take into account that Steve would look like a freakin Greek god with sweat pouring down his muscles and his white shirt sticking to his chest, making it look like a wet t-shirt contest. And the way that his muscles bulged when he lifted the weights and-

"Tony!" Tony was jerked out of his fantasies by Steve shouting at him.

"Sorry, Cap. What did you say?" Tony asked innocently, hoping that Steve hadn't picked up and why he was distracted.

Steve gave him a weird look, but let it go. "I said that let's wrap for today." 

Tony was disappointed, but also felt some relief because now he could escape to his room for some, cough, privacy. 

"Right, of course. See ya later, Cap!" Tony shouted as he raced out of the gym and up to the elevator that would take him to his elevator. 

Once the doors had safely closed behind him he groaned and bashed his head into the metal doors. 

Five more days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, here's the second chapter! I'm still taking requests and prompts, so don't be afraid to inbox me! Hope you all enjoy!!


	3. Day 3

"Captain America did what?" Colonel James Rhodes, or Rhodey, asked his rambing best friend. 

He'd gotten a call at 3 in the morning, and coming from Tony, that could mean anything.

"He exsisted."

"Tony, that's not exactly a crime." Rhodey sighed into the phone as he rolled over in bed to fumble on his lamp. Better to have light for this conversation. Tony sputtered into the phone for a few minutes before Rhodey interupted him. "Is this a bitch session? Cause if it is, I'm gonna need to make coffee, so you're gon-"

"I think I'm in lust with him."

Both lines went silent before Rhodey got out of bed to start making coffee.

"You're in what with him?" he asked.

"Lust." Tony answered. "I'm not gonna say love cause I mean I haven't come close to dating him so that would be WAY too soon and the last person I said I loved that I was in a relationship with left me and started dating my chauffeur. And like just sounds so, 13." he rambled on while walking around his penthouse.

Rhodey made small noises of acknowledgment while his coffee brewed, not wanting to touch this subject without the added caffeine. 

Once he finally had a cup and was back in bed, he cut Tony off from where he had been rambling on about whales.

"Does he know?"

"Does who know what?" Tony asked confused.

"Cap. Does he know you're in love with him?" Rhodey asked with patience that only came from knowing Tony for years. 

"Lust and of course not. Why would I tell him?"

Rhodey rolled his eyes at the correction, but didn't say anything. 

"Why wouldn't you? Tony, you tell him and then you start having amazing sex on a regular basis, it's a win-win situation for everybody."

Tony made a strangled noise in the back of his throat before talking. 

"Are you sure we're talking about the same guy? Steve? Steve Rogers? Guy who came from a time where it was illegal to be anything, but painfully straight? He might not be there anymore, but I'm sure his ideals didn't change that much." Tony pointed out before flopping on the floor next to his bed.

"What about Sergant Barnes?" Rhodey asked, getting his second cup of coffee, feeling like it was going to be a three pot kind of day.

"Bucky? What about him?" Tony asked, peeking under his bed to see what was under it. 

"Him and Agent Barton are together, are they not?" Rhodey asked.

"Well, yeah, but what does that have to do with Steve?" Tony asked, pulling out a cat toy from under his bed. He's never had a cat. Goddamnit, Natasha. 

Rhodey let out a sigh and just brought the whole pot of coffee into the bedroom with him.

"Barnes and Rogers are from the same time period, they are and were best friends. You don't think that maybe if James has certain inclinations, so does Steve?" Rhodey hinted.

"Um, no? He might not care, but Rhodey, I'm bisexual and that doesn't mean you're anything, but aggressively heteosexual." Tony said flicking the bell and feather back and forth.

"No, I'm not Tony. Wait, do you really think I'm heterosexual?" Rhodey asked incredulous.

Tony sat bolt right up in his room, "You're not straight?! Since when?" He shouted at his supposed best friend. 

"Since college, Tony. You really didn't know? We were roommates for god sakes!" Rhodey pinched the bridge of his nose, wanting to just go back to sleep and forget about this conversation.

"Wait, so I could've acted on my totally pathetic crush back then and we could have confessed our undying love to each other and had an awesome romance all these years?" Tony shouted into the phone, wondering how he missed this about his best friend.

"You were like 14, Tony."

"So?"

"So, getting arrested for statutory rape isn't one of my kinks." Rhodey replied wanting to pour the coffee on his own head.

"Ooooh, already talking kinks, huh?" 

"Goodbye, Tony." 

"Sweet dreams, sugarplum."

Rhodey hung up and turned off the light before laying back down to go back to sleep.

"Rogers and Stark get their heads out of their asses?" Phil rolled over to ask in his sleep groggy voice. 

Rhodey shook his head and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, "Of course not."

Phil snorted and tucked his head into Rhodey's neck, "I give 'em four days."


	4. Day 4

"Tony!" said genius jerked up from his sprawled position in the hallway floor. 

"Wha? Pepper?" Tony asked as he looked around in confusion. He wasn't used to sleeping this much, but his body was using this reprieve from his workshop to catch up on rest and it was leaving him disoriented.

"Tony, you promised me the new prototype for the Starkpad 6 yesterday, and I don't have it." Pepper said as her and her imposing heels came into view.

Tony grunted as he got off the floor, he was too old to be sleeping there anyways.

"I would have had it done if Captain Tight-Ass hadn't locked me out of my workshop." He griped as he led the way to the kitchen to start a pot of coffee.

Pepper's eyebrows went up to her hairline and her lips twitched.

"Steve locked you out of your workshop?" Pepper asked as she let her smile out. 

"Yeah, apparently starting fires is hazardous and I need to be taught a lesson - why are you smiling?" Tony asked, getting wary at the almost Natasha like smile the woman in front of him had.

"Nothing, just, take your time on the prototype." Pepper reassured the mechanic. 

Tony looked at his CEO like she had grown an extra head, "Okayyyy?" 

Pepper just smiled wider, "Good afternoon, Steve." 

Tony jerked his head to the doorway where the blonde super-soldier was walking in. From his work out. Sweaty. Sweet Jesus. 

"Miss Potts." Steve smiled at Pepper in greeting and said something to Tony, who wasn't listening because he was too busy thinking of how Steve would react if he just climbed him right now. 

"Tony!" Tony blinked and looked at Steve's face.

"What?" Tony asked, Steve had the same strange look on his face that he did in the gym and Pepper looked positively gleeful.

"I asked if you had eaten, I was wanting to try the new sandwich place the just opened on 37th street." Steve asked him. 

Tony opened his mouth to answer, but Pepper beat him to it. 

"Yes, he is. We were just talking about going to get something, but something at SI just came up and I need to take a rain check. So, Tony is free." Pepper said in a rush as she bent down to kiss Tony's cheek and raised her head so she could kiss Steve's in goodbye. 

"I think she's spending too much time with Natasha." Tony commented in the silence of Pepper's sudden departure. 

Steve snorted and raked a hand through his hair before making a face at the probable sweat that was there. 

"I need to go hop in the shower, but after.." Steve trailed off looking at Tony hopefully. 

"It's a date, soldier." Tony said playfully, wishing that it really was a date. 

Steve gave him a smile before going to his floor of the tower to get in the shower.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
Tony should really stop saying yes when Steve suggests that they do something together. Really, it doesn't end well for Tony. At all. 

"Tony, are you listening to me?" Steve asked, looking amused. 

No, Tony wasn't, because Steve was talking about art and Tony didn't give two shits about art. That was Pepper's area. 

But Tony was paying attention to Steve, how passionate Steve was about art. How his eyes got a little bit brighter when he talked about the different artists he admired as a child and now as an adult. How his hands fluttered when he tried to explain how a certain technique kept evading him, but the YouTube videos made it look so easy! 

"Of course I am, Spangles." Tony said as he popped the last bite of sandwich into his mouth. 

Something must have shown on his face because Steve blushed and ducked his head before shaking it and clearing his throat. 

"So, do you wanna go somewhere else or back to the tower?" he asked, bundling up his trash to throw away. 

Tony hummed as he thought, he didn't want this to end, but he didn't have anywhere else he really needed to go. 

Tony was just about to say tower when he caught sight of a bright red sign 'BROOKLYN UNIVERSITY OF ART - ART SHOW FROM 4PM - 7PM' 

Tony nudged Steve and pointed at the sign, "Want to check it out?"

Steve read the sign and looked at Tony in surprise, "You sure? I don't wanna go somewhere you won't enjoy."

"Even I like art, Steve." Tony said, but he chose to keep to himself that he would most likely be watching Steve's reactions, but Steve didn't need to know that. 

So they went in and toured the art students work and Steve told him how he always wanted to take classes at the school, but him and Bucky could never have afforded it. 

He watched him interact with students whose art they were looking at and discuss medias and shading and color schemes and terms that Tony didn't know, but the utter joy on Steve's face just made Tony want to cry.

They were there for two hours before making it back to the tower. They rode on the elevator together, but they were both going to different floors. Tony to his penthouse and Steve to the floor below it. 

They were silent, both replaying the day's events. When the elevator dinged at Steve's floor, he hesitated at the threshold. 

"Tony? Thanks, you know, for taking me today. I know art isn't really your thing and you were just being nice, so, thanks." Steve smiled and took a step forward before faltering and then swiftly pecking Tony on the cheek and leaving just as quickly as it happened. 

Tony slowly reached up to feel his cheek as the doors closed to bring him up to his floor. Jesus Christ, Rogers was gonna be the death of him. 

Only three more days, and then everything would be back to normal.


	5. Day 5

"Tony?" Tony grunted as his punch hit the bag attached to the ceiling. 

"Tony!"

"What?" He whirled around to face Clint, who had come down here to practice shooting his arrows. 

"You okay, man? You aren't usually down here this late." Clint asked him, looking concerned. 

Tony wiped the sweat off face and untaped his hands. "Yeah, just blowing off some steam since Cap took away my evil lair." Tony smirked, knowing it came off weak.

He was blowing off steam cause this past week had been torture, sweet torture, of nothing, but hanging out with Steve all the time. 

His little crush had developed into something that Tony didn't want to look at too closely, but he couldn't distract himself with tinkering and inventions.

So, he was here. Taking a page out of Captain America's book and beating up and sandbag at 3:03 in the morning. No one said that the Avengers dealt with feeling in a healthy manner. 

"If your sure, want to spar?" Clint asked, breaking Tony out of his pity party. 

The brunette snorted, "I'd rather not die tonight, thanks. I'm gonna head up to bed. Good night." Tony said, making sure to not turn away until all the words were out of his mouth so that Clint could read his lips. 

Clint nodded, "Alright, night." 

Tony gave a wave as he walked up the stairs that led up to the door of the training room. 

The elevators stopped in the communal living rooms and Tony looked up as the door opened, but nobody walked in.

That's strange, Tony thought to himself, and was about to hit the button that closed the door when he saw something on the couch.

He stepped off the elevator, and into his living room that was lit up by the flickering TV.

He stopped in his tracks as he saw what was on the couch, a dead asleep Steve Rogers. He was wearing a beat up pair of sweats and a plain white tshirt. 

The Good Captain looked so peaceful like this, face relaxed in sleep, body no longer tense like it was waiting for an attack. 

Tony got the blanket that was on the back of the couch and cover him with it, Steve might not get cold cause of the serum, but it made Tony feel better. 

The genius walked to where the remote was sitting on the table and clicked it off before walking back to the elevator.

"Sweet dreams, Cap." Tony whispered as the doors slid shut. Not noticing the smile the super soldier had on face, thanks to the darkness of the room.   
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ 

"What are you doing here?" Tony gasped out, not quite over his shock of seeing Natasha standing in his kitchen at 6:00 in the morning when she DID NOT live here. 

Bucky and Clint were standing to the side and laughing, obviously very used to the spy's presence in the tower.

"I'm here every Thursday, Stark. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in your evil lair?" She asked, raising an unimpressed eyebrow. 

Tony huffed, he knew word had gotten around that he was locked out of his own workshop and that Natasha just wanted to hear him say it himself. 

"You know damn well why I'm not down there." He gritted out from between his teeth before pushing past to get to his coffee maker. 

Everyone in the kitchen was obviously taken aback by his hostile response because Clint put his hands up. 

"Hey, I know you hate being away from work, but it can't be that bad hanging out with all of, right?" He asked, looking a little let down.

Clint only had Natasha and Coulson before the Avengers and the fact that Tony was that angry at spending time with, kind of hurt. 

Tony deflated at the sight of Clint's dejected look, "Of course not, it's just something else, alright? I promise." He said when Clint still looked like he didn't believe him. 

"If it's not that then what is it?" Bucky asked, wrapping his flesh arm around his boyfriend. 

Tony hesitated, how do you tell someone that your angry cause your being forced to spend time with their best friend. The best friend who is your best friend who you also have a gigantic crush on and want to fall asleep with every night and talk to about anything and take their last name and have their babies and-

"Morning guys!" Tony froze as Steve wandered into the kitchen. 

There was a chorus of good mornings as Steve got his coffee and circled back to where Tony was. 

"Hey, Tony, I was thinking we could hit that exhibit downtown that you were talking about last week. You know, since you took me to the art show last night, I thought it was only fair." Steve looked at Tony with such a happy expression on his face that Tony opened his mouth and his only thought was about what he was going to wear today.

"I can't. Um, Pepper sent over some stuff for SI that I have to work on in my office, so. Maybe another time." He said in a rush and fled from the room before he could see the disappointed look on Steve's face. 

When Tony had his workshop, his crush was easy to hide. All he had to do was keep his normal hours and he barely saw Cap, and when he came down to the shop he could turn up his music and ignore him.

But now all his time was spent with him and he was starting to get stupid. 

It would be okay though, he only had to avoid him for two more days.


	6. Day 6

Tomorrow. Tomorrow at exactly 12 AM, Tony will be able to go back to his workshop.

It said a lot about his character that the mere thought of stepping into his personal sanctuary made him so giddy. 

"What has you so happy?" Tony looked at Steve and grinned even wider, not even caring that he was supposed to be hiding from Steve.

"I get to go back in my workshop tomorrow!" Tony cheered in a sing-song voice. 

For some reason, Steve's face darkened and he slammed the cabinet shut without getting a coffee cup out.

Tony jumped in surprise, "Steve, you okay, buddy?"

Steve shot him a look that Tony hadn't seen since their first meeting and Tony took a step back. 

"Cap?" He ask, hesitantly. 

Steve just shook his head and stormed out of the kitchen without a backwards glance. 

Tony blinked at Steve's retreating figure and knew that, somehow, he had fucked up. But the only thing he had said was that his workshop was being unlocked tomorrow.

Tony shrugged and went back into his office, maybe Steve was just having a bad day.

*30 Minutes Later*

"What did you do to him?" Tony looked up at Natasha in confusion. 

"Do what to whom?" He asked, geniuenly not knowing what she was talking about.

She gave him an unimpressed look and sat down in front of his desk.

"Steve, he's been moping around and slamming slings and it's scaring everyone." Natasha raised an unimpressed eyebrow at Tony's sputtering.

"I didn't do anything to him! I literally saw him for like half a minute this morning." Tony cried.

"Really? So you two didn't talk or anything?" She pressed. Bruce was starting to get freaked out by Steve's moping, so she needed to fix whatever was bothering him before the Other Guy comes out.

"I mentioned the fact that my workshop gets unlocked tomorrow, but that's it." Tony said, looking confused.

Natasha threw her hands up, "You two, I swear. Go talk to him and fix this." She hissed at Tony before getting up and leaving.

"Fix what?" Tony asked to the empty room before getting up to find the super soldier.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ 

Tony found Steve 15 minutes later on the roof, sketching the building of Manhattan. 

"Hey, Capsicle, Natasha said something's been bothering you?" Tony phrased it like a question, even though now that he was paying attention, he could see the tense muscles, the scowl, the slightly red tipped ears, all pointing to an angry Steve Rogers.  
Steve didn't answer for such a long time that Tony thought that he was going to be ignored before Cap closed his sketch book and turned to face Tony.

"Nothing's wrong, Tony, I'm fine." Steve finally muttered after a solid minute of staring at Tony. 

Tony snorted, "Yeah, you look fine, Cap. Even I can tell you're angry and I am usually oblivious to other people's emotions."

"You wouldn't be so inept if you came out of your workshop once in a while." Steve muttered, not wanting Tony to hear.

Too bad he did.

"Excuse me?" Tony asked, aghast, no one usually cared about the hours he kept unless he put himself in danger.

"You heard me." Steve said, lifting his chin defiantly.

"Are you angry that I'm happy to go back into my workshop?" Tony laughed in disbelief.

"I'm not angry that it makes you happy, I'm angry that you're hiding." Steve practically spit the words at Tony with so much force that he took a step back.

"Hiding? What the hell am I hiding from, Steve?" Tony sneered his name, masking his fear at the spot on revelation about his activities.

"Me. You. Us. You think I don't see it? The way you look at me? At first I thought I was making things up, but everyone sees it Tony. But you're too much of a coward to-"

SMACK

Steve's head snapped around from the force of the smack and when he looked at Tony the genius was shaking and panting.

"Don't you dare. There is no us. There will never be an us. If you were so disgusted by me and my feelings, then you shouldn't have forced me to spend an entire week with you, that's a little counter-productive. don't you think?" Tony hissed at the shocked man before storming off.

 

"Wait-Tony!" Steve shouted and tried to follow the older man, but the roof door slammed shut and locked behind him. JARVIS was helping him then.

Damnit.

Steve slid down the door and gripped his hair.

Tomorrow, he would fix this tomorrow.


	7. Day 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, so here is the last chapter of this series! It's been amazing writing this and I can't believe it's over. I am still taking requests and will be for the forseeable future, so don't be shy. Thank you so much for the support! :)

This sucked. Fighting with Steve always left a sour taste in Tony's mouth, but this, this was different. 

This wasn't the small disagreements they had whenever Tony didn't follow an order during a battle or something equally unimportant that they would get over in an hour.

And Tony hated it! God, did he hate it. After everything that Steve just said to him, he had the right to be angry, but all he wanted to do was go back and apologize if it meant that the unbearable weight on his chest would go away and the ache in the back of his throat would stop making his eyes water.

Tony stormed all the way down to his workshop before he remembered that he couldn't get into it.

He let out a frustrated cry and sank to his knees in front of the dark glass. 

"J, can you please, please, unlock the door." Jesus, why did Tony's voice sound like he had been gargling glass?

"Protocol 67B12 will be in place until June 16th at zero hundred hours. My apologies, Sir." Funnily enough, JARVIS did sound sympathetic.

Tony squeezed his eyes shut and flopped down in front of the doors.

"Lock the hallway, J, and unlock the rooftop." If he couldn't hide out in his workshop, then he would get as close to it as he could.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
Tony woke up with a major crick in his neck and feeling like he had been run over. 

He groaned and rubbed his lower back as he walked into the dimly lit kitchen. 

Even after his late night, it was still only 6 in the morning and he wasn't expecting anyone to be awake.

Scratch that, Steve was.

Tony froze in the doorway when he saw the super soldier standing the kitchen, looking like he had gotten less sleep than Tony himself.

Tony contemplated just walking back out, but caffeine withdrawl headaches sucked and he wasn't going through one just because of Steve.

See, he wasn't a coward.

Tony straightened his shoulders and b-lined for the coffee maker, not even acknowledging Steve. 

"Tony I-" Steve started to say, but was cut off by Tony.

"Save it, Cap. Not in the mood." Tony said as he breezed passed him and to his office. 

Once there though, his cool facade dropped and he pressed his head to the desk. 

Fuck, this hurt. It really, really did. He thought hearing Steve call him a coward and tell him that he knew all along about his feelings was bad? 

This was worse. So, so much worse.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
"We have to do something." Natasha said as she and the rest of the team saw Tony and Steve walk into the room and then both leave it. 

"How? They are the most stubborn people we know." Bucky pointed out as he shook his head at his best friends stupidity. 

"Exactly. Which means that unless we help them, they won't ever admit they have feelings for each other or solve this issue." Natasha huffed.

"Actually, from what Tony told me, Steve does know about his feelings and threw them in his face last night and if I didn't know that Steve returned those feelings, I don't care if he is Captain America, he would be dead." Rhodey butted in. 

Phil placed his hands on Rhodey's clenched fists and they slowly relaxed. 

"But he does, and we know that, but Tony doesn't. So, how do we make them talk?" Phil asked, rubbing soothing circles into his boyfriends knuckles.

"Shove them into an empty room together?" Clint shrugged.

Bruce shook his head, "They would just glare at each other until we let them out, and that's if we could even get JARVIS on our side."

They all made noises of agreement and silently thought for a few moments before Natasha snapped her fingers.

"Movie night! Remember before Ultron and Bucky, how we would have movie nights and they would always end up cuddling by the end of the movie?" 

"That could work, but they're still mad at each other and I don't know about you, but I don't cuddle with people I'm mad at." Bucky pointed out, making the others deflate for a moment.

"Yeah, but what if like a quarter into the movie we all pretended to go to sleep so they would be sort of alone to talk and sort out their problems. Both of them are chatter boxes during movies, if you remember." Clint suggested.

"This might work." Phil said as everyone nodded slowly.

Now, they had to choose the perfect movie.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
Really, Tony didn't know why he was going to this. He knew that Rhodey had told Phil what had happened who had told Clint who had told Natasha, who now felt bad because it was her fault for making him talk to Steve.

So, now they were trying to make it up by having a team movie night, something they hadn't done in years. But, they were watching The Breakfast Club, so he couldn't complain.

Except for when he got to the movie room, the seat was right next to Steve, on the love seat. Shit.

They had done this on purpose. He knew he shouldn't have come, but everyone had already seen him and if he walked out, then he would just come across as a coward again.

So, he jutted his chin out and perched himself and the edge of the seat next to Steve.

Two years ago, he would have draped himself across his chest and tucked his head under his chin as Steve wrapped his arms around his middle, but evidently, Steve wasn't as comfortable with their movie night cuddling as he thought he was.

Ow, that felt like a punch to the gut.

Tony could see Steve frowning from his peripheral, but he just tucked himself closer to the arm of the couch, hopefully the movie wouldn't take too long.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
Honestly, they didn't even get to the part where they all eat lunch before everyone was asleep. Pitiful.

"It really is." Tony jumped at the sound of Steve's soft voice.

He hadn't realized he'd said that out loud. 

Tony chanced a quick look at Steve, who wasn't even pretending to look anywhere, but at the genius, before turning back to the TV.

Tony shifted in his seat, sitting like he was, was really uncomfortable for short amounts of time, let alone longer. It was starting to make his back hurt.

"You can lean back, I won't try to touch you." Steve said quietly, the 'like before.' Ringing out silent, but still loud.

Tony flicked his eyes to him and slowly leaned back on the back of the couch, sighing in relief as his back stopped crying.

His shoulder was brushing Steve's and his arm was heating up from the warmth bleeding into him from the super soldier, but he just bit his lip and looked away.

Steve obviously didn't want him, so he wasn't going to push himself on anyone.

"I'm sorry." Steve said abruptly, making Tony look over at him in surprise.

"For what I said, I didn't mean for it to come out the way it did." Steve faltered and licked his lips, searching for the right words.

"I didn't know that you liked me for sure until this week, you're good at hiding when you want to and I couldn't tell if I was reading too much into our flirting and cuddles or if you really did like me back-"

"Woah wait. Back?" Tony cut Steve off, his heart hammering. Did this mean-?

Steve smiled and placed his hand on Tony's thigh, "Yeah, back. Tony, I'm in love with you. I have been for a while and I'm so sorry I called you a coward cause the truth is I'm one too, and I-"

Tony silenced Steve by placing his lips on his, the kiss was slow and sweet, but help all the love that they had been too afraid to confess for so long.

When they pulled back they were grinning, "I love you too, you idiot." Tony whispered before pecking him on the lips one more time and settling in Steve's arms. This is where he belonged. 

With his super soldier, watching The Breakfast Club.  
~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~  
Tony groaned as woke up. The TV screen had long gone dark and everyone, but he and Steve had left the room and gone to bed. 

Tony moved Steve's arm from around his waist so he could reach his phone to check the time.

3:00 AM, the workshop would be unlocked by now.

Tony looked back at Steve, lit up by the glow of the phone and smiled.

He turned his phone off and snuggled back into Steve.

His workshop could wait.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So this is my first Avengers fic and I'm pretty proud of it! I took the title from a Halsey song called Gasoline. If any of you liked what you saw I am taking requests and prompts. I only do one-shots and 2-3 chapter fics and no het pairings but other than that I do almost every ship. Thanks guys! Hope you enjoyed! :)


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